#myCMUlife

I’m in my third year of International Development Studies, and I think development is something we all need in our lives. Despite popular belief, development isn’t something that an individual can take and deliver to someone in need like pizza. It’s a process which explores important questions of privilege and power imbalances. It teaches individuals to build relationships centred around trust and respect.

At CMU, we are encouraged and challenged to understand how our perception and theorists’ definitions of development is defined by worldviews and values. It is difficult to provide a simple and concise definition of development because good development is fluid, taking the shape of the context and people that create it.

On the other hand, destructive development can be easier to define. A development worker once shared with me a story. She knew a development worker who was riding to the city in a packed community bus through winding roads. Someone got car sick and threw up all over the floor of the bus. No one in the bus seemed disgusted or did anything to clean the mess that seemed to be spreading. Grandparents hopped over the mess and women carrying chickens struggled to navigate their way around it with their children.

The development worker could not believe no one was cleaning the mess and decided that he was going to use his newspaper  to cover it. While the bus waited on the side of the street for individuals to lower their produce from the roof of the bus, he quickly covered all the mess. The worker went back to his seat.

To his horror, as soon as the bus started moving, the wind came through the open windows and caused the newspaper to fly around the bus and smack passengers in the face. The worker slouched on his chair and pretended to take a nap for the rest of the trip! He was unaware that everyone was waiting for the next bus stop, which was near a house where the driver was planning to clean up the mess with a bucket and mop.

That story helped me understand that even with the best of intentions, we can cause harm to those we hope to help. As development practitioners, we need to be attentive to local knowledge – and remember that eating before a bus ride can be a bad idea!

César

My name is Sara and I’m in my second year at CMU in the Environmental Studies program. I love God’s creation and have always been interested in the mysteries of the natural world. My mom jokes that “metamorphosis” was one of my first words (metamorphosis is the transformation of an immature form of an insect to it’s adult form, or the process by which a caterpillar turns into a butterfly).

Sara works with classmates in a small, professor-directed lab at CMU.

A dream that I’ve held my whole life is to be Ms. Frizzle, the crazy science teacher with a magic school bus. I probably won’t be able to take students into space or inside the human body for a field trip, but it’s Ms. Frizzle’s excitement and passion which I want to replicate if I get to become a biology teacher. I enjoyed science and specifically biology in high school when I began understanding the concepts of DNA and genetics. These discoveries excited me, and if I haven’t convinced you that biology is super cool, then I can show you some of the pictures I have of meiosis or you can take a look through the microscope I got for Christmas in grade nine.

After I graduated from Linden Christian School in Winnipeg, I took a year to go to Capernwray Bible school in England. My next step was university. I’d heard great things about CMU and have now experienced them. I got to be in small classes of about 25 people in my first year biology courses, and I had one-on-one help from my professor in my labs. That was worth so much. You would not be able to get this at other universities in your first year.

The professors at CMU are passionate and want to share their excitement with us students. When I talk with Rachel Krause, one of our biology professors, about her work, I can tell she enjoys it. She’s helping me figure out how to reach my goal of becoming a teacher. At CMU people truly care about you and your goals.

It is nice to be in a place where I am taught about God’s creation and have classes like Ecology, Environment, and the Bible, where I can learn the biblical perspective on topics covered in my other classes. At CMU, it is recognized that science is more than what is physically in front of you; science can also be a way for us to see the majesty of God.

I encourage you to consider CMU for yourself and become part of this vibrant learning community.

Guest blogger Sara is an Environmental Studies student.